Faith

And the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

The first three of the ten miracles that Jesus performs after He had delivered the Sermon on the Mount were to social and religious outcasts; the leper, the centurion and Simon’s mother-in-law. The modern mind may find such a thought laughable that a woman, an ‘outsider’ and a diseased man were all scorned upon; yet it is to these that Jesus, perhaps purposefully, reaches out. There are two miracles narrated in today’s gospel; the healing of the centurion’s ‘servant’ and that of Peter’s mother-in-law.

Roman centurions oversaw a hundred soldiers and this man was likely in the service of Herod Antipas’ garrison town. We are told that the centurion has a ‘servant’ who is paralysed and in distress. The Greek translation of the word servant in this passage is παῖς (pais) which translates as boy, and thus son. John’s gospel, narrating the same incident, refers to the paralytic as the son of the centurion (John 4: 46).

Be it a son or a servant, it took the centurion great courage to come before Jesus.  Being a civil servant, the centurion most certainly had his ear to the ground and had surely received reports about this compassionate rabbi.  Jews were not known to be kind to their Gentile occupiers and the hatred was mutual, for the Romans saw the Jews as a difficult bunch of religious fanatics.

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Faith

Face to Faith- Friday, 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 8:1- 4

The leper knelt before Him and said, “Lord if you choose you can make me well.”

The Sermon on the Mount has ended and the gospel writer Matthew, having shown Jesus as the Messiah of the word, presents Him as the Messiah of the deed (JBC). In this section spanning Chapter 8:1- 9:38, we will read of nine miracle pericopes that encompass ten individual miracles.

The first of these miracles is the cleansing of the leper. Jesus has finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount and is followed by large crowds. It is a leper who comes to Him, kneels before Him, calls Him Lord and asks to be made clean. In one swift move Jesus does the unthinkable. He touches a leper.

Even with the knowledge that modern science gives us, we loathe touching a leper.  For those living in the first century this was one of the most dreaded diseases, enough for God to give Moses extensive instructions in Leviticus 13 and 14.

The Biblical understanding of leprosy, ‘tsara’ath’ in Hebrew, included a variety of skin ailments. Leviticus 13 and 14 list at least seven medical conditions as ‘tsara’ath’, including scaly skin blemish. At the time of Jesus, the lepers were despised from society, driven from their homes as outcasts, had to wear torn clothes, let their hair hang loose, cover their upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ To add to the distress of the person, the physical quarantine was twisted into a moral judgment as sinners.

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Faith

Solemnity of St Peter and Paul, Apostles – Thursday, 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 16: 13-9- ” you are the Messiah, the son of the Living God

The confession of Peter, “you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”, seems all too easy an answer, given the question if asked today, to you and me.  But did Peter fully fathom what he answered? For Jesus says to Peter, ‘flesh and blood has not revealed it to you but my Father in heaven’. So did Peter get it right by himself or was he just prompted by God? Did he fully understand who the Messiah was ?

How do we know when God is speaking to us? How can we be sure that the voices we hear in our head are not simply the chatter of our minds reflecting our own wishes; mere ‘flesh and blood’ responses?  How did Peter know what to say when the other disciples got the answer so wrong?

To understand the word ‘Messiah’ as being uniquely attributed only to Jesus would be as fallacious as to understand that Jesus was the only one crucified in history; yet many Christians believe so. Crucifixion was perhaps the most brutal public execution carried out by the Romans and Jesus was one of the thousands put to death in this fashion. The same understanding must be applied to the meaning of the word Messiah; it would be sentimental to insist that this word must exclusively apply itself to Jesus.

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Faith

Spiritual fruit or religious nuts? Wednesday- 12th week in ordinary time – Matthew 7:15-20

We are now at what is the conclusion of the first of Matthew’s five discourses found in the gospel. Until now, Jesus has been preaching the Sermon on the Mount to the disciples; to His inner circle. Now towards the end we hear that large crowds are listening to Him and are ‘astounded at His teachings.’ As He winds down His discourse, Jesus warns His hearers to be cautious, not only of the ‘hypocrites’ within Judaism, but also those within His following.

When Matthew was piecing together the Sermon on the Mount, his community of followers faced excommunication from the Jews, as well as a threat from false teachers within the community. These ‘false prophets,’ whom he makes reference to again in 7:22; 24:5, 24 are perhaps apostate Christian leaders who have great charismatic gifts of prophecy; a gift that was perhaps being used to mislead people.  It is these charismatic leaders that this passage is aimed at.

To erroneously assume that the gospel of Matthew is anti-charismatic (not to be confused with the renewal) would do the gospel great injustice. Matthew simply wants to regulate the abuse of prophecy by some leaders. This is applicable even today to those who have gifts, and in particular, the gift of prophecy. This abuse stands even more condemnable when those who don’t have such gifts, claim it for financial or personal gain.

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